Arsenio Hall was given false hope. Back in February, with the help of Jay Leno, CBS Television Distribution announced that his talk show was granted a second season order. Now, three months later, the company apparently has changed its tune, axing “The Arsenio Hall Show” for good.
“Unfortunately, The Arsenio Hall Show will not return for a second season; while there are many loyal fans of the show, the series did not grow its audience enough to continue,” CBS says in a statement. “Arsenio is a tremendous talent and we’d like to thank him for all the hard work and energy he put into the show. We’d also like to thank Tribune and all our station group partners for their support of the show.”
Hall responds to the cancellation, “When I started this adventure with CTD and Tribune, we all knew it would be a challenge. I’m gratified for the year we’ve had and proud of the show we created. I’d like to thank everyone on my staff for rallying around me and striving to make the best show possible every night.”
The May 21 season finale is now the last episode for the talk show, which debuted last September. The show marked Hall’s second time as the host of a syndicated talk show. He previously enjoyed a big success with a same-titled talk show which ran from 1989 until 1994.
“The Arsenio Hall Show” opened to decent ratings, with a 1.5 rating in households and a 1.0 among adults 18-49, but the rating dropped 60 percent in the key demo within its first several months. The show’s average viewership was about the same as for Bethenny Frankel’s daytime show “Bethenny”, which was canceled earlier this year after one season.